Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to application service providers (ASPs) and more specifically to providing ASP functionality using asymmetrical ASP interaction.
An application service provider (ASP) is a business that provides computer-based services to a website provider. The website provider can then provide the services to users over a network. An example of this business is that of providing access to a particular application program (such as online banking) using a standard protocol such as HTTP.
Currently, ASPs provide access to their services to website providers via 2-way, on-demand communication, i.e., in a symmetrical manner. The ASP network must be available and provide on-demand support for user requests for both data reads (e.g., actions related to data display and presentation) and data writes (e.g., actions related to data creation, updating, or deletion). An example of a data read (in an online banking application) would be looking up a user's current balance, and a data write example would be updating a user's address information.
Accordingly, the ASP network must always be available and accessible. If the ASP network becomes unavailable for any reason, the functionality provided to the website provider's network cannot be accessed by the user. In the online banking example, if the ASP network is not available when a user tries to look up his current balance, then the user would not be able to complete that action. Thus, the website provider cannot provide the functionality to its users until the ASP network is available again. This has many disadvantages. For example, if a website provider is providing an online service, such as an online bank that is dependent on ASP functionality, then not being able to provide the functionality from the ASP may cause the website provider to lose business and alienate users.